This old fashioned apple pie filling recipe for canning ensures you have homemade filling to make a delicious apple pie all year long!
Preserve the apple harvest by canning your homemade apple pie filling.
This delicious pie filling can be added to a homemade crust in a pie pan for a traditional homemade apple pie, or to mini pie crusts, or phyllo dough for mini apple pies, or served warm over vanilla ice cream.
Giving away your own homemade canned apple pie filling makes a great gift!
If you don’t have your own apple trees or a local orchard nearby, you can always buy fresh apples for cheap during apple season from the grocery store.
It does take quite a lot of apples to plan to buy several pounds of apples.
The best apples for apple pie filling are:
- granny smith
- pink lady
- honey crisp
For more apple recipes check out:
- Slow cooker applesauce for canning
- Easy apple butter recipe for canning
- Old Fashioned Easy Apple Crisp Recipe
How to Make the Apple Pie Filling
To begin, peel, core and slice apples. An apple peeler makes this is a much easier process.
While you’re slicing them, put them into a bowl full of 1/4 cup of lemon juice and 4 cups water to prevent them from browning while you peel and chop the rest.
Drain apple slices and bring a large pot of water to a boil and blanch the apple slices for one minute.
Depending on the size of your pot you may have to work in batches.
In a large saucepan over medium heat, combine sugar (or brown sugar!), corn starch, cinnamon and nutmeg until combined.
Add the apple juice and cold water.
Bring to a boil, stirring constantly and cook until the thickens and begins to bubble.
Add the lemon juice and boil for another minute. Remove from the heat and fold the apple slices into the mixture. Heat, stirring constantly until the apples are heated through.
How to Can it
The canning process for canning apple pie filling is very easy because we’ll use a boiling water canner.
Ladle the hot filling into your sterilized canning jars. You’ll want to heat your jars for a hot packing which means filling your apple pie filling into hot jars.
Leave one inch headspace. Remove the air bubbles with a chopstick or plastic knife.
Wipe the top of the jar and secure the lids and ring.
For both your pint jars and quart jars, process in a hot water bath for 25 minutes. Turn off the heat and let them sit for 5 minutes.
Remove from the hot water back and let cool on the counter for at least 12 hours.
To use your pie filling you’ll simply pop open your jar, pour it into your pie crust and bake it at 425 degrees for 40-50 minutes or until the filling is bubbly and the top crust is lightly browned.
For more awesome home canning recipes, check out my post popular posts:
- Ultimate List of Canning Recipes
- 50+ FREE Canning eBooks
- Three Ingredient Strawberry Jam
- The 7 Things You Need to Get Started Canning
- 50+ Tips and Tricks For Canning From Veteran Homesteaders
Old Fashioned Apple Pie Filling For Canning
Ingredients
- 12 cups of sliced, peeled and cored apples
- 2 3/4 cups sugar
- 3/4 cup corn starch
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
- 2 1/2 cups unsweetened apple juice
- 1 1/4 cups cold water
- 1/2 cup lemon juice
Instructions
- Peel, core and slice your apples.
- Black your apple slices in a large pot of boiling water for one minute. (Depending on the size of your pot, you may need to do this in batches)
- In a large saucepan, combine the sugar, corn starch, cinnamon and nutmeg. Stir in the apple juice and cold water. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring constantly, and cook until it thickens and begins to bubble.
- Add the lemon juice and boil for one minute more, stirring constantly.
- Drain the apple slices and immediate fold into the hot mixture, allowing the apples to heat all the way through.
- Ladle the hot apple pie filling into hot canning jars, leaving 1 inch headspace. Remove the air bubbles, wipe the rim and secure the lid and ring.
- Process in a hot water bath for 25 minutes. Turn off the heat,
Notes
To keep the apple slices from browning, soak them in a mixture of 1/4 cup lemon juice and 4 cups water while you peel and core the rest.
